Round And Round I Ran
Five laps of the park this morning... Ten miles of joyousness on grass and woodland trails...
I love running on grass, it takes me back to running around the fields of Bath university in my twenties, I loved training there, it was a scene of much fartlek...!
My brother in law a Nick and I often ran those fartlek sessions there together. At other times I ran alone, and sometimes the Bath rugby team were practicing... They would shout encouragement, and I particularly remember Gareth Chilcott... I recall being very impressed when I went to run the Great North run one year, to meet him there, and discover he was up for completing a half marathon... A discipline very alien to the sport he was trained for... I certainly would never have been tempted to play a game of rugby!
Round and round I ran...
Three years ago, I returned to those fields to run the masters national cross country championships; much of the fields I ran on have buildings on them now, the university has expanded into a wonderful complex for sport and creativity....
It felt like only a flash of time, and a magical shining city has appeared....
And on that grassy field, where the championships were taking place, I was as if I had a foot in two eras... There were many of my friends from twenty five years ago, looking essentially as I remembered them, maybe a few more lines etched on their faces; but their energy remained recognisable, the same...
Julia Gates... They exclaimed with delight, and we greeted one another as if it were the day before.... I felt like the young promising athlete I was then...
And my other time zone was there beside me... running in the over 50's event for Brighton and Hove...
Round and round the same fields I ran...
Today I jogged to the park, a glorious summer morning. I was a bit later than the other times I have run there this week, and so the park was more alive with runners and dog walkers, as well as park keepers working to keep the grass smooth, and the hedges contained....
The lap is just under two miles... I jogged along a woodland path, out into the grass, looped round and reached a stretch that leant itself to running fast....
I set off with more intent, the plane was to run on a heart rate of circa 160... Along the top I stretched, across the Tarmac path that circles the circumference, a right hand bend keeping the trees to my left, down to the tennis courts, along the path between the trees... And I reached the woodland again...
I checked my watch... 1250 metres... Perfect.
I did five laps, each lap stretching out along that section...
I loved it... It is so good for my spirit not to time myself, only in races, when someone else does it..!
Later...
I have just returned from working in Central London again, and find that I have developed a routine in the last few days of stopping off, buying cake when I get off the train... And bringing it home to eat with Anadi over coffee...
We catch up with one another's day...
I notice how quickly we adapt to living a different life and establishing a different rhythm wherever we are .....